Page 79 of Jace 4Ever
Jace
Queens flickered by outside the window, the sun setting quickly as we drove toward my apartment.
The day after the Oscars—after Nelson and I had dragged our asses out of bed at nearly one in the afternoon—was a whirlwind of phone interviews, a few Zoom and Skype interviews, and a news conference with several other winners. Cary had set that up with a few other agents to keep our travel to a minimum, and we both appreciated it.
I tried to hang back out of the spotlight, but I did get asked a few questions here and there by some of the reporters. They wanted to know who the man who had captured Nelson’s eye was, and I swore that every single picture of me was with a deep red flush of embarrassment on my face.
Nelson thought it was adorable and kept pressing kisses to my cheek. I didn’t mind, though.
He loved me, and I loved him.
How the hell did I get here? There were times I thought I would never have a roof over my head again, and here I was dating a Hollywood superstar, completely smitten with the man so few people really got to know.
Our flight home, on my superstar millionaire boyfriend’s private jet—holy hell—was Saturday morning. It had given us a little time to have a few more interviews and some alone time. Nelson decided we would drive up the coast a bit to San Luis Opisbo and out to Montana de Oro State Park for some hiking.
And some frotting on a deserted beach. Which was spectacular, both beach and beach sex.
We were on the plane the next morning by eight, back to New York. It felt like I was coming back to reality or something. Not terrible, just like I was waking from an amazing dream.
I pushed the Uber door open and climbed out, and Nelson followed on the other side. I stared at him over the roof of the car.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m coming up with you.”
“Nelson…”
“Jace, I know where you live.” He grinned at me. “I just want to see what your place looks like.”
Like I could ever deny this man anything. I nodded and he grabbed our bags out of the back. I took mine as soon as I could and headed inside.
Secretly, I had hoped we would stop at his place first so I didn’t have to show him where I lived. I’d been able to avoid it for six months now. The good luck streak had to come to an end.
The landlord was pretty good about keeping the entrance clean and free of clutter…or other questionables. My brother wasn’t the only one who had a shady past or currently shady dealings going on. There wasn’t much to do be done about it, really, unless they were caught or didn’t pay rent.
Keys in hand, I made my way up to the second floor apartment. The elevator was out of the question. I never used it after I’d gotten stuck in it once with a cracked-out resident who kept wanting to know why I didn’t have the coke on me. I spent a very long hour explaining that I wasn’t their dealer while they spent the hour essentially bouncing off the walls of the metal box.
Never again.
The door was unlocked, of course. I sighed and pushed my way in. The place was lit up like Times Square, and the stink of weed drifted on the air.
Mortified probably wasn’t a strong enough word.
Nelson closed the door behind us and looked around. I couldn’t imagine what he was seeing.
My beat ass couch with the ’80s print that I had originally found at Goodwill in good condition, the table that looked like something from Grandma’s Country Kitchen, the TV stand that was way too small for the massive, and surely stolen, fifty-five inch flat screen…the peeling wallpaper and the now-yellowed tape I had used to hold it on the wall, the linoleum with the rips and tears and curls.
I hung my head. “Sorry. It’s…”
“Fine. It’s fine, Jace. It’s clean. It’s clear you do your best.” He coughed lightly. “The weed smell, however…”
“Jerrod loves his weed.”
“Little too much.” The chuckle was just that, a chuckle. There was no rebuke and no disgust. “I’m guessing by the haze he’s here?”
“Yeah, he doesn’t see a problem leaving the door unlocked when he’s here.” I motioned down the hall. “Problem is that when he’s here, he’s not really here because he gets stoned. He couldn’t fight a flea in that state.”
Nelson had followed me down the hall and waited as I banged on the door. “Jerrod!”
